WordPress is a flexible as well as customizable. It is a powerful platform for building websites. It is also pretty easy to use. However, certain maintenance tasks are needed after the website is up and running. There are certain plugins that helps to automate certain task and these are handy.
What is a plugin? Plugins are programs written in PHP and can be easily installed on WordPress site to provide specific features and functionality. It helps in blocking spam, improving loading time of the site and performs various more tasks. Here are some useful plugins to know about:
Installing A Plugin
Installing a plugin can be a little tricky. Log in to your WordPress admin page. Look to the left sidebar menu from the admin dashboard. Click “Plugins” here. Now, there are two options to install and below are these briefed:
Search for a Plugin in the Plugins Library. Open the plugins setting tab and type name of the specific plugin in the search box. You can even type a keyword and a list of options will appear. You can also search by popular, new, favorites or pre-determined keywords. Research the options by clicking “details” or install right away by clicking “install now.”
Upload Your Plugin. You can download a plugin as a .zip file and thereafter upload it to your site. Click the “upload” tab in the top navigation on the plugins settings tab. Choose the file here and the plugin will start uploading and installing itself. Do take a note here that the files can only be uploaded in .zip format.
The setup for each plugin is slightly different after installation. Some requires no configuration and some requires a bit of work. Click on the “Activate Plugin” link after installation and thereafter follow the on-screen instructions.
Must-Install Plugins
Thousands of WordPress plugins are available. Here are some interesting and utility plugins to use:
1. Akismet
Akismet is a popular plugin that helps in getting rid of annoying spam in WordPress comments section. Unwanted ads and strange comments are always frustrating. The plugin can ignore the issues easily. It automatically checks comment, trackback and pingback against a database of known spam. The comments are filtered to a spam folder if spam is detected.
2. Google XML Sitemaps
Google XML Sitemaps is another popular plugin. It helps search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing to index your website content. It ensures that the website is searchable. The plugin will automatically generate an XML Sitemap and notify search engines whenever you publish a new post.. The files the plugin generates are compatible with all major search engines.
3. MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights is a powerful plugin. It connects WordPress site to Google Analytics. You get access to the real-time stats of your site. You can see who is clicking on your Google AdSense banners. You can easily track PDF and other file downloads from your site, track referrals and more. The plugin is critical for understanding how users interact with your site. The information can be used to maximize your traffic.
4. WordPress SEO by Yoast
WordPress SEO by Yoast is an optimization plugin. SEO is the process of maximizing traffic to your site through search engine results. It give total control over making sure the content is SEO-ready. It helps in determining how the posts will appear in search results and allows to check for simple SEO elements that are easy to overlook.
5. Soliloquy
Soliloquy is a responsive WordPress slider plugin. It helps in creating sliders that display seamlessly on desktops, smartphones, tablets and other devices. You can make sliders in minutes with its drag-and-drop interface. It comes with several pre-built templates for customizing the slider.
6. W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache helps in faster site loading and this is important. High-resolution images and external scripts can seriously slow down the site. The W3 Total Cache helps keeping the balance. By caching pages, databases and browser information, the plugin ensures the elements are not dynamically loaded on each page view. They are fetched from a preloaded cache instead. Hence, load times and user experience are improved.
7. WP Awesome FAQs
WP Awesome FAQs is simple and highly helpful plugin. It maintains a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page on the WordPress site. You can create an unlimited number of FAQs with it. Each comes with its own title and description. A custom post type is made available after installation. It is called FAQ and you can easily add new questions.
8. Video Recorder
Video Recorder is a handy plugin. It helps in adding interactive video elements to the site. You can simply paste a shortcode onto any page or post with the help of it. Users can record short videos. The videos can be testimonials, interviews, contest submissions, auditions, reviews, feedback or anything else.
9. CSS Hero
CSS Hero allows customizing the CSS-based appearance of the WordPress theme without using actual CSS code. You can change font styles, manage colors, insert special effects and adjust measures. It will produce cross-browser compatible code that loads perfectly.
10. Contact Form 7
Contact Form 7 provides a simple and customizable way of adding contact forms to your WordPress site. You can customize the look and layout of the form through a simple markup interface. Contact Form 7 also works in conjunction with Akismet to overcome spam abuse.
Verdict
The above mentioned plugins helps in streamline WordPress experience. Some helps in automating essential tasks and providing powerful functionality to help in enhancing site performance, security and usability.
